Field of the Invention
This invention relates to adsorber filter fill systems and more particularly relates to an apparatus for optionally closing holes in the metering means of an adsorber filter fill system hopper in order to obtain a substantially air-tight seal at the holes. The apparatus of the present invention is designed to assure air-tight sealing of the holes in the metering means of the adsorber filter fill system when the apparatus of the present invention is in position so as to close the adsorber filter fill system, even if residual, unwanted adsorbent granules have remained in the holes in the metering means or are disposed between the sealing means of the closure apparatus and the metering means of the adsorber filter fill system.
The referenced prior parent patent application describes and shows adsorber filter fill apparatus, in a variety of embodiments, for filling adsorber filter cells with granular adsorbent. It also describes and claims a method for filling such a adsorber filter fill system. The method works most successfully when a substantially air-tight seal is affected at the holes in the metering means of the adsorber filter fill system. Several of the embodiments of the adsorber filter fill system described in the parent patent application have means for optionally opening and closing the holes in the metering means through which the granular charcoal passes as it flows downward into the adsorber filter cells. One of the characteristics of the various embodiments described in the parent application is that for a substantially air-tight seal to be created at the holes in the metering means when a gate means is at a first or closed position, machining of the metal parts is required, so that close fitting and tight tolerances may be maintained. This machining naturally increases the cost of manufacture of an adsorber filter fill system and unless high standards of quality control are maintained, a substantially air-tight seal is not obtained when a gate means is in the first, closed position with respect to the metering means.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a closure apparatus for use in conjunction with an adsorber filter fill system which provides a substantially air-tight seal at the holes in the metering means of the adsorber filter fill system, when the closure apparatus is in the first closed position thereby preventing the flow of granular adsorbent of a storage hopper portion of the adsorber filter fill system, which apparatus does not require extensive machining operations during manufacture in order to obtain a substantially air-tight seal.